Dry Hood on dry suit, or Wet hood on Dry suit? which one and why?

[Bob3]

Here's a little reading material for you on the topic of Surfer's Ear:

http://www.earaces.com/surfear.htm

I hadn't heard about it either 'till a couple years ago when there was barely enough room to get ear tubes installed.
Made me wish I'd have heard about it 40 years ago too, even if I probably wouldn't have listened.
:bonk:

 

[danw2002]

I was under the impresion that surfers ear was caused by the constant hitting of the ear with water force and that is why it mostly happened to the ear that mostly faced the incoming wave.
and it was the action of this happening many times per surf outing that did infact cause the body to react to this as a trama and protect itself. In addition to the infections and such that happen because of it also. and divers need to be aware of it, but it will not happen as easly as we dont get the slamming in and out of the water, just a slight ingress at the begining of the dive, which warms up to body temp quickly, then the egress after the dive...:bonk:

 

[tinman]

John C. Ratliff once bubbled...

I've used an Aquala dry suit with an attached hood, and a wet suit Farmer John bottom under it. That was the warmest I've been in cold water

Interesting...haven't tried that before. How did this affect your weight requirements vis-a-vis using other layers of wool, etc. Did you put on anything overtop or underneath the Farmer John? What water temp. did you do this in? I'm curious because my favourite puddle is in the 32 o F range and I'm open to new ideas and this won't cost me anything to try!

 

[John C. Ratliff]

The combo worked pretty well, until I tried to glue a waterproof zipper from a survival suit into the Aquala (it had a tied front entry originally). It never was water tight after that. But I wore a Farmer John bottom of the wet suit, and as I recall, a pretty good sweater over it (not wool though). I was very warm even in low-fourty degree water at about 80 feet, where the wet suit clad buddy froze. The weights were not much different from a wet suit (I wore about 22 pounds in salt water then, and 16 pounds in fresh water). You had to purge the air out of the suit's cuff or face seal, but then it was pretty good. I put a BC-style hose into the back of the suit, and an air inflator into the front of it, so I had the equivalent of the suits available today. I used three-finger wet suit gloves, as I still do, with this system.

Above, there was mention of wearing a wet suit hood on a dry suit. On my last dive at Edmonds Underwater Park was with a new diver who did this, and it did not seem to work well. The edges of the hood kept coming up, and I'm sure he got water onto the back of his head from that. It had an extended skirt, so this caught the water when he moved.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Bob,

Thanks for the info, I've bookmarked the site. It is interesting, but I've not heard of it for divers, and it is apparently not a problem for me.

SeaRat

 

[mddolson]

I wear an attached latex hood, with a 7 mm detached neoprene hood as a liner.
The face seal of the neoprene is trimmed back so the latex also seals on my face.

The neoprene does not absorbe water and retains its insulating characterisitics if wet. I found other liners ok but usless if you have a leak. My ssuit alos has a latex neck seal.

In warmer water I loose the liner or switch to a 3 mm neoprene liner.

Under the ice I add a 3 mm ice divers hood

Mike D

 

[Norda]

In regard to the comments on Surfers Ear, it would seem that divers would be much less susceptable than surfers if wearing a properly fitted hood. Isn't the concept behind a wet hood the same as a wet suit? A thin layer of water is trapped and warmed and if fitted properly will continue to be trapped (and warm?) Therefore it would seem that the diver would only suffer from the initial "hood flood" whereas the surfer would constantly be subjected to cold water. It would seem that the infrequent exposure versus continous exposure would make a lot of difference.

 

[Dundas]

I had a bad ear infection last summer... lost a month of prime diving in July 'cause ofit... so I started looking into how to protect my ears.

Found vented ear plugs for diving... called Doc's Pro Plugs.. they have a website.. don't remember the address now.

But I ordered them and just got them. Tried them in the Bahammas they seemed to work well, but I didn't have a hood on,.. so I was worried I'd lose them. Lookin forward to tryin them up here.

it seemed to be easier to equalize,... and they kept the water out.

jeff

 

[TwoBitTxn]

In my very limited experience diving dry I have been using a 7mm hendersons bibbed hood. I was fine, but the water was 50*F too. Not the really cold stuff yall are talking about .

The hood fits pretty snug, and it traps a little air, but it quickly reaches a limit and thats it. At the end of the dive my hair is barely damp.

TwoBit

 

[danw2002]

saw the pic, so how do you seal your neck? you have a neck seal and hood seal around your neck? sounds like maybe the direction i need to head. i have the short 7mm neoprene that goes over my head, and meets the neck seal. and you know what kind of problem i have with that.:bonk:

mddolson once bubbled...
I wear an attached latex hood, with a 7 mm detached neoprene hood as a liner.
The face seal of the neoprene is trimmed back so the latex also seals on my face.

The neoprene does not absorbe water and retains its insulating characterisitics if wet. I found other liners ok but usless if you have a leak. My ssuit alos has a latex neck seal.

In warmer water I loose the liner or switch to a 3 mm neoprene liner.

Under the ice I add a 3 mm ice divers hood

Mike D